36th Milo Marathon Finals: A Not-So-Newbie Runner's Musings

Milo Logo

Back in July of this year, I had my first ever 5K fun run with Milo Marathon. I would say that the experience with the Milo Marathon propelled me to join other fun runs in the succeeding months.  Not just one person said that I was on a roll, and indeed, I am.  I enjoy the freedom of running, and I figured that I will enjoy running while I still can do it.  Time will come when these knees would give out, bones would already be rickety and they wouldn't be able to tolerate the abuse anymore.  But I plan to prolong my running stint as long as I can, hopefully, well over my 70's.  That gives me a few more decades hahaha! 

Next Running Agenda: 7-Eleven Run 800

I enjoyed my first fun run so much that I went scouting for another event I can participate in.  In fact, in my current goals, I included running activities to my list.  My running buddy, Ate S. even wanted to upgrade already to 10K. She was probably caught up in the excitement of our first run.  So am I, but I'm not yet delirious lol!  After all,  I have a heart to protect.  I said it's too soon for me to upgrade to that category.  She agreed, so we're still on the 5K level, but now that I have a personal record, I'd try to beat that first.  My record time for the recent Milo Marathon is 45 minutes and 21 seconds.  Slow, right?  I don't mind, as long as I finished the race still standing up, no sustained injuries and still able to smile at the finish line.  I was expecting my legs to hurt days after but there was only slight pain, the kind of good pain you have when you exercise.

For running enthusiasts, I am most sure they have come across Takbo.ph.  They've got a list of running events there.  My running buddies and I chose this particular event:

Image from 7-Eleven Run 800

Am I Ready to Run?

Few weeks ago, my colleague who has been joining fun runs in the past year has finally recruited us to sign up for one.  I was actually planning to join fun runs next year, when my body has really acclimated to doing more vigorous activities.  If I didn't have hypertension, I would have joined instantly.  I was kind of hesitant because of that, but with a little coaxing, I finally gave in and signed up for this:

Milo Marathon Packet : the bib and the singlet

BC Bloggers Meme: Things That Make Me Happy

Woman drinking coffee, a photo by Tetra Pak on Flickr.

Would it be right to say that a happy person is also generally a healthier person? I'd like to think that way. After all, a positive attitude contributes to overall health and well-being. Personally, I find that simply thinking about the things that make me happy is enough to bring out that smile, to lift up my spirits and feel blessed. I guess, you'll agree with that. 

So, here are the things that make me HAPPY:

Philippine Society of Hypertension

 

 Philippines Society of Hypertension

It's time to be on the loop.  If there are societies for hypertension worldwide, there is definitely one in the Philippines.  Mr. Google is my research buddy so I head over to the site and keyed in this phrase "Filipinos and hypertension."  After 0.28 seconds, it coughed up 158,000 results.  Yeah I know...slow huh?  Just kidding.  It's good to know that we have our own Philippine Society of Hypertension.  After all, one of the country's top main health concerns is the "silent killer." 

I'm still reading some articles.  It was cool to know that there is one day dedicated to hypertension and as you can see from the above picture, it is this coming May 17,  2012.  In fact, as I have just read from the site, May is "Hypertension Awareness Month."   I suppose things that are important deserve a day or a month, either to celebrate, commemorate or to have meaningful discussions like conventions.  

As part of awareness campaign, they also have a downloadable comics written in Filipino.  Surely I wouldn't let that pass so I downloaded my own copy.  Who knows?  I might be able to share it to those who might benefit from it.  Anyway, I just had to laugh a bit as I scrolled to the last page,  right at the bottom where they put the sponsor.  It says there: "Compliments of Neobloc."  I would have been nonchalant about it but Neobloc is also known as tadaaaaaa...Metoprolol, my nemesis!  Talk about the irony of things.  Kidding aside, the comics is a good way to promote hypertension awareness.  There's just one thing there that I am not buying totally.  One of the characters there said that once you have hypertension, you have to take medication for life.  I'll try to prove that wrong.  

Going back to the badge above, I really heart that tag line :  

Healthy Lifestyle, Healthy Blood Pressure. 

My Fitness Pal: My New Health Partner

As part of developing healthy habits, I have begun monitoring my food intake since last week.  I am now on my second week.  My main concern there is monitoring my sodium and potassium intake.  Less of sodium, more of potassium.  For the latter, I am not taking supplements.  I'm trying to get it naturally from foods rich in potassium.  

Monitoring using the file I created in Excel proved to be tasking, in the sense that it's hard for me to come up with a good estimate of how much of this and that are actually in the servings I consume.  It's simple when what I eat are store-bought items that are properly labeled with nutrition facts.  But what about cooked food?  That's where I use guest-timation.  I had no other alternative so I kept with what I was doing.  

As I was surfing the internet, I came across MyFitnessPal.  I believe it wasn't the first time I've seen it.  I just didn't really pay attention the first time.  I clicked on the About tab and scrolled down a bit to this part.  That got my attention.

 

Over a million in the food database.  "Right," I said to myself.  Just for the fun of it, I tried searching for tuyo, tinapa, alamang.  What do you know?  They have it, and even have sub-classifications.  Alright, that got me!  I signed up (which I should have done ages ago) and even invited two of my colleagues to check out the site.

Check out MyFitnessPal...it just might be your new BFF to staying healthy.  It's a free membership site by the way.

It Just Takes a Few Clicks to Help Victims of Typhoon Sendong

NASA's Terra Satellite Catches Powerful Supertyphoon Megi, 

a photo by NASA Goddard Photo and Video on Flickr.

I have not been watching the television for quite some time. So it was a bit late for me to hear about the news down south of the Philippines. And I only got to the details of things through posts in Facebook profiles and this post from Paula of BC Bloggers :

Dont Turn a Blind Eye. Here's How You Can Help Mindanao Flash Flood Victims.

Do visit the link above so you can find out the details of how you can give assistance to the people devastated by the typhoon.

You might be wondering what a post about a supertyphoon is doing in a blog about health and wellness.

The Secret of BC Bloggers

 Shhh!, a photo by cscott2006 on Flickr.

I've recently come across this cool group, BC Bloggers. It perked up my interest, probably because of the word "secret" in the logo.  Who doesn't get curious with secrets?  I visited the site and liked what the secret is all about.  One thing I can say is it's a great channel to meet like-minded folks...bloggers and writers.

Wondering what BC bloggers is all about? I'm not going to blabber about it here on my blog and spoil the secret.  You have to discover it for yourself by clicking on the image below.  Besides, they can explain all about it much better.  See you there!